Netanyahu’s address came after his Likud party reported that he visited the Gaza Strip on Monday and vowed to step up the army’s assault in the Palestinian territory.

Families of hostages taken by Gaza operatives booed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday (local time) as he addressed parliament, vowing to bring the captives home but saying “more time” was needed. “We don’t have time,” one relative called out in response from the Knesset gallery, after which the families chanted “Now! Now! Now!” demanding the immediate release of the hostages.

During a special parliamentary session attended by families of the hostages, the Israeli PM said, “We won’t stop fighting,” adding that “we need time.”  Netanyahu said he reached out to Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin to intervene on the hostages’ behalf and that his wife Sara had directly appealed to the Pope, according to The Times of Israel report.

“I am also not detailing the efforts we are making at this moment and I do not think it is right to detail them,” Netanyahu continued. “I just want to emphasize: We will shake every tree and turn over every stone to return all our abductees.”

Israel said 129 hostages, kidnapped on October 7 when Hamas gunmen attacked southern Israel, are still held in the Palestinian territory. “We, my colleagues and I, aren’t sparing any effort,” Netanyahu added, to return “all of our hostages home”.

“We’re not stopping, we’re continuing to fight and we’re intensifying the fighting in the coming days. It’s going to be a long war that’s not close to ending.”

Netanyahu’s address came after his Likud party reported that he visited the Gaza Strip on Monday and vowed to step up the army’s assault in the Palestinian territory. “I just came back from Gaza,” he said, according to a Likud party statement.

In the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, troops of the Nahal Brigade raided two schools in Gaza City’s Daraj and Tuffah neighbourhoods, CNN reported. The IDF said raids were carried out following intelligence of Hamas operatives hiding at the complexes.

Hamas’s Daraj-Tuffah battalion is believed by the IDF to be the last standing battalion in northern Gaza. According to IDF, the troops during the raids encountered and killed several Hamas gunmen. Dozens of explosive devices, assault rifles, and 15 explosive belts were found in the complexes. In one incident, a Hamas terrorist fired a missile from one of the schools at the troops.